Foster children program blasted

CARSON CITY -- Angry couples from Northern Nevada and children's advocates accused the state Division of Child and Family Services of playing God, lying and shuffling youngsters from foster home to foster home until they are too old for adoption.

They told the Assembly Judiciary Committee Thursday the state agency fails to keep brothers and sisters together in their placements and that caseworkers seldom visit the foster homes to check on the condition of the children.

Ray Diehl of Yerington, said, "They're like God. They believe they are above the law."

Diehl and his wife, Renee, told of having a foster child placed in their home and the couple agreed to start adoption proceedings. They were then told the child was bound for Florida for adoption.

Renee said, "They (the division) saw us as a cheap motel. We were becoming a family."

Other couples told similar stories and complained that after a district judge terminated parental rights, it took the division too long to open the door for adoption of the child.

Beverly Block, who works as a court appointed special advocate, testified she gets little cooperation from the division. In one case, a child was placed in seven different foster homes by the time he was 9 months old. In another instance, she said, the child remained in a foster home for a year, even though there were adoptive parents available.

They were testifying on the first of two bills to speed up the adoption process and to make sure that children are represented in court in parental rights cases. Committee Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, appointed a subcommittee to work with the parents and advocates on Assembly Bill 158.

Steve Shaw, director of the Division of Family Services, sat through the hearing but did not testify. After the session, he said he would hold a public meeting in Yerington, where the complaints are centered, to get to the bottom of the problems. He said he wants to work with the public in enacting a better law.

Susan Foster of Yerington complained that children under the state's jurisdiction are kept in foster care "for years and years. It's a form of child abuse."

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